Former captain revealed that he aftermath of the scandal was long, drawn out and particularly painful. A five-match ODI series was scheduled and he didn't think that either side were comfortable about going ahead with the games. As the one-day series began, there was a frosty atmosphere between the two sets of players, tensions simmering away. Not surprisingly, it all came to the surface before the series finished.
Andrew said that after a very professional start, when we won the first two games, including chasing down almost 300 at Headingley, we lost the third game at The Oval, where the Pakistanis outfoxed us with some excellent reverse-swing bowling.
The problem came after that game, when the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board suggested in the media that the England team might have been match-fixing, so sudden was our collapse.
Straus goes on to say imagine what sort of pandemonium would have broken loose if the ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, had accused Pakistan of match-fixing without any evidence.
This was a step too far. Here we were, professionally continuing a series when many sides would have been unwilling to keep up the facade, only for the chairman of the PCB to question our integrity rather than addressing the very serious problem that had been uncovered in his team.
Straus writes that after match fixing allegation by PCB chairman the feelings were high and, as captain, I was particularly galled at our integrity being called into question. The crisis was so serious that a meeting to discuss the matter was arranged between the players and Angus Porter, chief executive of the PCA, our union..
